BARCELONA– A blistering Barcelona side blew Borussia Dortmund away at the Olympic Stadium on Wednesday to transfer to the verge of an initial UEFA Champions League semifinal given that 2019. They did so with objectives from each of their terrible front 3: Raphinha opened up the racking up, Robert Lewandowski netted two times, and Lamine Yamal finished the 4-0 win late on.
There is still the 2nd leg ahead in Dortmund following week, yet it’s difficult to see Bar ça not establishing up a last 4 conference versus either Bayern Munich orInternazionale This is a Bar ça side that plays as a group, strives for every various other and, most significantly, has a strike that frequently delight in objectives.
It is among things train Hansi Flick claims he likes most around this group. They never ever placed the handbrake on.
“It’s not finished at 2-0 or 3-0,” Flick stated back in January, at the beginning of Bar ça’s unbeaten run which currently extends to 23 video games in all competitors. “They go to the end of the match. This is what I love and what we like to play.”
That will certainly be the principles in Germany following week.
“I think we played very well, but we have one more game to go,” Lewandowski informed press reporters after the video game. “We always want to play our game and we want to go there and win. That’s always the objective.
“If you have a 4-0 lead at half-time [in the tie], in the 2nd fifty percent in Dortmund you should play the exact same. Or also much better. This is the Champions League and we constantly wish to go to our finest.”
Lewandowski is a good place to start. His brace took him to 40 goals for the season, and 99 for Barça, at the grand old age of 36. He has often been overlooked with Raphinha and Yamal dazzling either side of him and Pedri pulling strings in midfield, but he is always ever-present against Dortmund.
His former side must be sick of the sight of him. He headed in Barça’s second here and added the third with a low finish after good work from Yamal and Fermín López. Both goals were accompanied with rabid celebrations despite having spent four years playing for Dortmund before his 2014 move to Bayern Munich. He has gone on to score an astonishing 29 times in 28 games against them since.
Raphinha, meanwhile, is having a Champions League season for the ages. He leads the competition with 12 goals — followed by Lewandowski’s 11 — and has tallied 19 goal contributions in total. That’s the most ever for a Brazilian and level with Lionel Messi‘s best European campaign for the Catalan club. His first against Dortmund was his easiest yet — but also created a nerve-wracking wait as VAR checked for an offside. Pau Cubarsí‘s touch was heading in when the Brazilian slid in to make sure, with the revision eventually confirming he was just onside.
1:18
Moreno: Dortmund never stood a chance against Barcelona
Ale Moreno says it’s no surprise to see Borussia Dortmund handed a heavy defeat by Barcelona.
” I was fretted on the very first objective if I was offside, it’s excellent that it was provided,” Raphinha told reporters. ” I apologised to Cubars í. He informed me no concerns, he would certainly count it as an aid. I assumed the sphere was going large, it was an instinctive choice.”
The numbers are on a par with some of the best attacks to have graced the Champions League in the 21st century. Raphinha and Lewandowski are the first teammates to score 10+ goals in the competition in a single season since Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mané managed the feat for Liverpool in 2017-18. The last Barça pair to both score double figures were Messi in Neymar in 2014-15, the last time the Blaugrana won the competition.
And after that there is Yamal, that came to be the very first gamer to ever before rack up numerous objectives in the Champions League knockout rounds prior to transforming 18. He had hurt Dortmund from the beginning. A great Gregor Kobel save maintained him out in the 5th min, he after that crinkled over prior to establishing Raphinha, that fired right into the side netting.
The teen’s pass to López in the accumulation to Lewandowski’s 2nd objective was superb, as well, and he topped his evening with his 14th objective of the period, dealing with the advocates to a dancing with left-back Alejandro Balde to salute one more four-goal proving from Bar ça.
That’s the 21st time this period Flick’s side have actually netted 4 or even more objectives in a video game. They have actually played 48 suits. They have actually racked up 36 objectives in 11 Champions League video games, approximately over 3 per suit. That’s 7 greater than any kind of various other group– and they have actually dipped into the very least 2 less video games than many.
It’s at the various other end where groups will certainly want to do them harm if their unbeaten run is to finish. Dortmund demonstrator Serhou Guirassy missed out on a hat method of opportunities at the end of the very first fifty percent. If among them had actually gone it, it might have been a various video game.
The site visitors additionally had opportunities late on. Wojciech Szcz ęsny conserved from United States global Giovanni Reyna and there was a late objective dismissed for offside, yet there was to be no late alleviation for Niko Kova č’s side to reclaim toGermany Other challengers might not be so inefficient, yet maintaining Bar ça out is one more point.
Wednesday’s goal-fest, also if the effort is still to be done, will certainly do little to subdue broach a treble. Bar ça are currently right into the Copa del Rey last on April 26, where they will certainly encounter Real Madrid, while they additionally lead LaLiga by 4 factors with 8 video games to go. And currently have one foot in a Champions League semifinal.
“If you are saying that another team is going to win, I don’t know why you go out on to the pitch to play, so we can win the treble,” Yamal informed ESPN today. “We are Barça. We have already achieved it [in 2009 and 2015] — hopefully we can do it again.”
